Upstarts test old guard of House

Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) is almost old enough to be the grandfather of his opponent, Eric Swalwell. And Swalwell is all too willing to let voters know it.

A campaign mailer from the 31-year-old Democrat shows an ad from Stark in 1972, contrasting his youthful self to then-Rep. George P. Miller, whom Stark had called “81 years old [and] a congressman for 28 years.” Next to that, Swalwell replicates the Stark ad, comparing his youth and energy to Stark — “80 years old and 40-year member of Congress.”

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“I wanted to show that a member can serve past their effectiveness,” Swalwell, a Democratic city councilman in Dublin, Calif., and an Alameda County prosecutor, said in a recent interview. “In 1972, he raised a very good point at that time that Congressman Miller had been there for 28 years, and we’re raising that same point, which still rings true.”

From the San Francisco Bay area to western New York state to the suburbs of Washington, D.C., some longtime congressional incumbents are — for the first time — facing formidable political challenges in races upended by redistricting, anti-Washington fervor and, sometimes, even themselves.

In Rochester, N.Y., longtime Democratic Rep. Louise Slaughter is in her first serious race since the 1990s, locked in a fight with Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks, a Republican who brands Slaughter as a “Washington insider.”

And in suburban Maryland, Republican Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, who was first elected in 1992, is widely expected to lose — one of the clearest victims of redistricting.

“You have to find a way to run against the Congress you serve in for a number of years,” Dave Wasserman, the House editor for Cook Political Report, said of longtime incumbents. “You have to reinvigorate a dormant campaign operation [and] … explain why you haven’t been part of the problem.”

If lessons from primaries are instructive, these incumbents could learn from longtime lawmakers such as Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), who fended off a fellow Republican, freshman Rep. Sandy Adams, in a redistricting-induced primary battle in August.

Mica, a well-financed House committee chairman, started campaigning hard as soon as he knew he and Adams were drawn into the same Central Florida district earlier this year. He drowned her out on the airwaves, outspending her by a 3-to-1 margin.

There are also cautionary tales, such as the reelection bid — or the lack thereof — of Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), who sat on more than $2 million and didn’t recognize the threat posed by his primary challengers, including eventual victor Ted Yoho, until it was too late. First elected in 1988, Stearns won GOP plaudits from inside the Beltway for his congressional investigations of Planned Parenthood and Solyndra — but those achievements did nothing to improve his standing back home.

Stark could fall victim to that same sense of political complacency, observers say.

“Part of the buzz in the Democratic establishment is that he has not staffed up, he has not availed himself of the kind of consulting talent that somebody in that position should be taking advantage of, given the tenuousness of his situation,” veteran California Democratic strategist Garry South said.

California in particular has faced two major changes that have led to significant upheaval in its congressional delegation. Redistricting is now led by an independent commission, and a so-called jungle primary ensures that the top two vote getters in a primary election move on to the general, regardless of political party. Those factors have created congressional districts with no incumbents and races in which sitting lawmakers are facing off against each other, such as the vitriolic battle in the San Fernando Valley between Democratic Reps. Howard Berman and Brad Sherman.